Silent Hill 4: The Room (Game)
Silent Hill 4: The Room was the fourth installment in the Silent Hill series. Originally, the game wasn't planned to be part of the Silent Hill franchise and this was decided last minute. Characters More, in depth details of the plot are contained in the the following Character pages. *Henry Townshend *Walter Sullivan *Eileen Galvin *Cynthia Valesquez *Jasper Gein *Andrew DeSalvo *Richard Braintree *Frank Sunderland Storyline Silent Hill 4 follows freelance photography Henry Townshend and takes place in South Ashfield, a town close to Silent Hill. He finds that he has been locked in his Apartment, Room 302 with no way to escape. That is until a hole appears in the bathroom wall. When Henry goes down it he finds himself in several places: South Ashfield Subway, A forest near Tolluca Lake, A Water tower South Ashfield, South Ashfield Heights and St. Jerome's Hospital. Something is odd about them though, rooms are distorted, blood is on the walls and most of all, Monsters roam the place. Throughout we learn about Walter Sullivan, an orphan who was adopted by Wish House an orphanage who raised their children with knowledge of The Order, Silent Hill's religious cult. Walters parent's abandoned him in Room 302 shortly after he was born but was found by the superintendant Frank Sunderland. He grew up to believe that Room 302 was his mother. He remembers the [[21 Sacraments|'21 Sacraments']] which he was taught by the orphanage. Actually a ritual to reincarnate their god, Walter misreads it as a ritual to wake his Mother up form her sleep. This included the deaths of 21 people. In each of these worlds Henry meets several characters, all of which have something in common. All knew Walter or had met him at some point in his life and each were killed as part of the 21 Sacraments. Cynthia Valesquez is trapped in the Subway World, Jasper Gein is trapped in Forest World, Andrew De Salvo is imprisoned in the Prison World and Richard Braintree is killed in Building World. When we go to the Apartment World, it is apparent that Henry's neighbour Eileen Galvin is the next intended victim. Eileen manages to survive when Walter is stopped in his tracks by his younger self who Henry also sees throughout the game. The Young Walter represents the good in Walter as a whole and stops Walter killing Eileen because unlike the other victims, Eileen was nice to Walter when they first met. The evil in Walter knows she should die for the 21 sacraments but the good in Walter doesn't want to go through with it. Eileen is taken to St. Jerome's Hospital and when Henry goes down the hole after her attack, he finds himself there. He eventually meets up with Eileen and they continue together. Throughout the game, notes are delivered under Henry's door from Jospeph Schreiber, a man who was also killed as part of the 21 sacraments. Joseph also lived in Room 302 and provides insight into Walter Sulivan and how to stop him from suceeding the 21 Sacraments. Henry finds a hidden room in his apartment and is shocked to see the dead body of Walter Sullivan amongst items used for religious ceremony's. It was earlier mentioned that Walter Sullivan was arrested for the deaths of Billy and Miriam Locane and killed himself whilst in prison. Why is he here and how did he get there. When investigating the Apartment World for the second time Henry finds an umbilical cord that was found and kept by Sunderland. This umbilical chord belonged to Walter and in one of Joesphs notes, it is believed that this will help defeat Walter for good. Walter manages to gain possessive control over Eileen and she goes to see Walter who is now ready to finally complete the 21 sacraments and he means it. He has built a machine which Eileen is slowly walking towards and Henry has to quickly kill Walter in order to save her and himself. What happens to both Eileen and Henry depends on which ending the player gets. Endings Soundtrack thumb|238px|right|Room of Angel: The game's main theme song. #Tender Sugar (5:32) #Waverer (2:54) #Fortunate Sleep - Noone Disturb Her Dead (2:06) #Melancholy Requiem (3:53) #Confinement (2:27) #Drops of Shame (2:49) #The Suicidal Clock Chime (1:10) #Silent Circus (2:55) #Traversing The Portals Of Reality (2:03) #Into The Depths Of Self Discovery (2:55) #Cradle of Forest (6:30) #Resting Comfortably (0:51) #Nightmarish Waltz (3:09) #Pulsating Ambience (3:04) #Your Rain (4:42) #The Last Mariachi (1:37) #Wounded Warsong (3:12) #Underground Dawn - Never Come (2:12) #Fever Chill (2:28) #Remodeling (2:54) #Room of Angel (7:08) #Waiting For You: LIVE AT "Heaven's Night" (6:19) Interesting things to note *Walter Sullivan was also referenced in Silent Hill 2 when James reads a newspaper article about him. This was when killed himself after he was arrested for killing Billy and Miriam Locane. *If you go to room 202 in either of the apartment levels the guy who lives there has painted portraits of the people that live there. Included with these are short descriptions of the people and what he thinks of them. *Rachel, the nurse that lives at Ashfield Heights may be the same Rachel that treated [[Mary Sunderland|'Mary']] and [[Laura|'Laura']] from Silent Hill 2. *Frank Sunderland is [[James Sunderland|'James Sunderland's']] Dad. When Henry looks at a particular picture in his bedroom he'll mention that Frank's son had gone missing meaning James may not have survived Silent Hill. This further proves that Mary and James live in Ashfield and could have well been treated by the Rachel in this game. *[[Alessa Gillespie|'Alessa']] and [[Dahlia Gillespie|'Dahlia Gillespie']] are both mentioned in the game. In the oprhanage, Henry comes across a note which says "Have you found Alessa yet? - Dahlia". Changes from the rest of the series Silent Hill 4: The Room introduced some major changes to the series. This caused some Silent Hill fans dissapointment and it's now considered the worst Silent Hill game of the series for most. The changes included: *For the first time, the game isn't set in Silent Hill (This is probably because it wasn't planned as a Silent Hill game) *The Puzzle elements from the first three games were taken away. *The game was more action orientated than it's predecessors. (Note that now, 5 years on, Resident Evil has also become more action orientated but remains popular with Horror fans). *Some aspects of the game (when you're in Room 302) are in First Person view for the first time in the series. *You had a limited inventory. Henry could only carry ten items and had to return to room 302 to unload some items into his chest at home. *Henry carries neither a flashlight or a radio. These are considered major elements of the Silent Hill series. Game Reception Silent Hill 4: The Room is considered to be one of the worst games in the Silent Hill franchise amongst fans. Critics, however, were positive about the game: http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps2/silenthill4theroom?q=silent%20hill%204 *Official Playstation Magazine (US) 90% *IGN (US) 80% *Gamespot 89% *Play Magazine (UK) 75% *Next Level Gaming 94% *1UP 80% *GameSpy 80% References External Links Official Site (Europe) Translated Memories Category:Silent Hill 4: The Room